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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Apr 21 - Maternal autoimmune disease appears to be associated with an increased risk of learning disabilities in sons, results of a study published in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine suggest.

In a case-control study, Dr. Gail Ross of New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, and colleagues examined whether children of women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) during pregnancy are more likely to have learning disabilities and to be non-right-handed. They also studied whether maternal disease variables are predictive of the presence of learning disabilities in their children.

Included in the study were 58 children whose mothers had SLE during pregnancy and 58 matched controls. The children completed standardized intelligence tests and a modified version of the Edinburgh Hand Preference Questionnaire. They also took tests in reading, arithmetic, and writing achievement.

The investigators report that learning disabilities were significantly more prevalent in sons of women with SLE than in daughters of SLE women or in controls. No association was observed between maternal SLE and non-right-handedness in either sex.

"Only the presence of anti-Ro/La antibodies and maternal flare during pregnancy significantly predicted learning disabilities in the offspring of women with SLE, independently of the other variables entered in the model (p < 0.03)," Dr. Ross and colleagues report. "The odds ratio for the association between maternal anti-Ro/La antibodies and learning disabilities in the children was 5.74; the odds ratio for the association between maternal flare and learning disabilities in the children was 9.43."

The investigators suggest that maternal antibodies affect the fetal brain, particularly in male offspring because of maternal immunoreactivity to antigens associated with the Y chromosome. Whatever the mechanism, they conclude that such children might benefit from early educational intervention.

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2003;157:397-402.

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